Dear Readers: I want to tell you about a few things. First, my food allergic son Lennon woke up this morning requesting rice cakes with sliced avocado and salt for breakfast.  I am both thrilled and confounded by this. I’m thrilled that he leans towards the nontraditional, allergen-free option, but confounded by his lack of craving for protein.  Getting enough protein into Lennon is a running problem. He will eat hot dogs, chicken apple sausage, occasionally a fried egg (he is not allergic to eggs, in case you are wondering “WHAT’S SHE TALKIN’ ‘BOUT?!”), and chicken in various incarnations.  This week, he’s expressed a love of mild chicken curry, so I made up a pot of Japanese-Style Chicken Curry (recipe to come in the Fall edition of Allergic Living Magazine), to which he declared, “This is some GOOD curry”.  I felt triumphant.  But it is an ongoing battle to fill him with nutrients to keep him growing.

I wonder how many of you out there experience this too in your daily lives?  What sorts of things do you feed your picky eaters? What do you do to fill the protein quota in your food allergic child’s diet?  Should I come out with a breakfast protein cookie?  Please let me know with a comment about both questions.

The good news is I just came back from the KeHE Distributor show in Chicago, and Free-From options were front and center, as you can see from the “Free-From” display that welcomed attendees the moment they walked through the door.  This is a rapidly growing category, which is good for those of us who eat an Allergy-Friendly diet.  More and more options will be made available to us, in the next few months, and years.

Upon my return h0me from Chicago, I got the following newsletter from New Hope, with the headline announcing:

Allergen-free food market shows no signs of slowing

I encourage you to check this article out. What other items would you like to see added to those shelves above? I’m listening, intently. And I promise, that what I’ll make you, will taste really really good!

Welcome back to Allergy-Friendly Friday! This week, we are celebrating Allergy-Friendly Father’s Day.  Please add your best Allergy-Friendly recipe links for the father’s in your life.

Here are the recipe highlights from the last roundup. Remember, the featured recipes are also being featured on my Allergy-Friendly Friday Highlights Pinterest board, so check them out there, along with other featured allergy-friendly recipes from weeks past. If you have been featured, I encourage you to grab the Allergy Friendly Friday Badge from my right sidebar and share it on your blog, so others know you’ve got a featured recipe on Allergy-Friendly Friday.

• Middle Eastern Couscous with Butternut Squash and Dried Apricots from The Fussiest Eater
• Asian Lettuce Wraps from For This Season
• Vanilla Cream Parfaits with Gingersnap Granola from Gabriela’s Health Coaching + Natural Skin Care (more…)